The Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) promotes the interests of municipal engineers and their profession with the aim of expanding the knowledge and best practices in all Local Government municipalities.

*Commentary by Bhavna Soni (Mrs) PrEng. IMESA President

It is our objective and duty to ensure effective service delivery to all. To enable City Engineers to execute their duties, cooperation between all levels of governance is critical and a clear understanding of the challenges.

On behalf of our members and as the standing president of IMESA, I would like to respond to a comment made by National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane (interview on Morning Live, SABC2, 12 November 2021) that engineers need to explain why services cost so much and keep escalating. He was referring to funds allocated to municipalities in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement delivered to Parliament by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

These are a few of the challenges faced by engineering departments in metro and local municipalities that contribute to infrastructure costs rising so drastically: 

• 30% Contract Participation Goal (CPG) component for construction and professional service contracts, whereby a portion of the contract has to be allocated to targeted enterprises. This was introduced without putting proper processes and systems in place. The main contractor and professional service provider are still responsible for the work thus risk cost is included in the contract.
• Covid risk has been transferred to the contractor as well.
• Covid risk has slowed down the productivity, due to health and safety requirements, which further increases the cost.
• Work stoppages by local forums delay the contract and the contractor claims further project costs.
• Poor performance of the contractor sometime leads to termination and thereafter the new appointment to finish the work causes delays and further increases in infrastructure cost.

Other delays can be attributed to bureaucracy and the length of time required for Public Enterprises and Government to go through procuring goods and services.

Apart from the above, we also have to contend with ever-increasing Construction Industry Price increases due to exchange rates, steel prices, and fuel prices. It is a constant challenge for our city engineers to provide the services that our communities expect.

We appreciate that National Treasury is now engaging with professional bodies to resolve procurement issues related to the interpretation of regulations and compliance requirements.

As IMESA, we look forward to more opportunities to engage at a national level to explain our challenges and discuss ways to improve service delivery.